The chroNICHOLLS of Tanzania

Be ye therefore…. dishonest?

The ‘Parable of the Shrewd Manager’ (see below) is probably the most difficult of Jesus’ parables to understand, at least, for me it is. I read an article last week that attempted to explain it through middle-eastern thinking, and it was helpful to an extent, but I feel like it missed the point. The gist of the explanation was that, in the context of the preceding parable about the ‘prodigal son’, the parable of the shrewd manager is all about the character of the rich man who was about to fire his corrupt manager, but, because of the manager’s shrewdness in banking on his master’s goodness and honour, relented, thus showing God’s goodness and willingness to show mercy. This is one of a number of explanations that take the parable at face value.

But I think the key to understanding this parable has to be in Jesus’ comments about it:

Luke 16:9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.

Is Jesus seriously recommending this? Perhaps, but it sounds strange. And what are ‘eternal dwellings’? The Greek says something like ‘eternal tents’, and we all assume this means heaven, but is there a precedent for calling heaven the eternal dwellings? Could it be ‘somewhere else’? In what eternal dwellings are we going to find the kind of friends that can be gained through worldly wealth?

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.

Here Jesus sets up the condition for being trusted with things. Pretty straightforward.

11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

This is the part that makes me scratch my head. Was the shrewd manager trustworthy in handling worldly wealth? No. Was he trustworthy with his boss’s property? No, not by anyone’s standards. He was shrewd, but he wasn’t trustworthy. And if Jesus were talking to the shrewd manager, he’d have to say to him, “Who will trust you with true riches?” What are true riches? Probably something of eternal value. I can’t see this shrewd manager being the kind of person that would be entrusted with resources of the kingdom of heaven, can you?

13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

I can’t help but think that maybe Jesus is being sarcastic with them, but I’m not sure. Could he be saying, “Go on, use money to gain friends for yourselves so that when you get to hell you’ll at least have some friends who will welcome you in. But remember this: if you’re unfaithful with what you have here, with the resources that have been entrusted to you, with worldly wealth, don’t expect God to entrust kingdom resources to you, which are so much more important and valuable. If you get entrapped by money and its lure, remember you are unable to serve God at the same time.”

Why would Jesus call the manager ‘dishonest’ (v8) then tell us to emulate him, because ‘whoever is dishonest with little will be dishonest with much’?

Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts. Am I missing something?

Luke 16:1-13 (NIV)The Parable of the Shrewd Manager16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “ ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “ ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? 13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

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3 Responses

Perhaps the manager isn’t acting unethically here. Collecting debts is hard, and sometimes people just won’t pay. If the manager had been lazy by not getting people to pay his master back loans (in the form of goods), this would be poor management. Sometimes it’s easier to “cut your losses” with a debt and collect what you can. Especially if you were charging large amounts of interest on the debt.

So, by inviting in the debtors and reducing what they owed the master, the manager was at least able to collect part of the debt owed. For the olive oil dealer, he collected 50% of what was owed and forgave the rest. For the wheat dealer he collected 80%, and forgave the rest. Who knows, maybe this was a good business move. Especially because we don’t know the margins of profit the master was making from these invesents and/or loans. 50% of the olive oil could possibly the repayment of the entire loan-just no interest. And 80% of the wheat could have been the repayment of the loan with some interest. I guess we will never know, but if the owner thought the manager acted shrewdly in these accounts, then perhaps it was a good agreement. The master got his money back, in addition to partial interest paid (I’m guessing), the dealers were happy because they were able to pay off a debt that was hanging over their head at a reduced rate (think negotiating a large credit card bill that had grown high due to interest, and getting the credit card company to reduce what you owe in exchange for a large one-lump sum payment), and the manager came out looking like a hero to everyone. His master finally got some debts collected (which, who knows, could have been outstanding for months or years) and the debtors got a reduction on what they had to pay. Everyone owes the manager now.

Maybe he needed to learn how to act shrewdly, and stop being lazy or too “relaxed” or “nice” to everyone. But he didn’t go overboard by sending the debtors to prison (which still wouldnt have gotten the master his money back). Instead, he played “let’s make a deal.” maybe god wants us to learn how to be a little more shrewd so that we can actually get things done!

Hi Bekah, thanks for posting. I quite like your angle on it. I could almost see this kind of thing happening here in Tanzania. I still see two main issues though, 1, that Jesus called the manager ‘dishonest’ (literally ‘unrighteous’), so I think that’s the same as ‘unethical’. The other is that he didn’t actually collect any money, he just changed their debts, so I doubt that the master was happy financially, he just thought it was a pretty shrewd thing to do. In that culture, the master wouldn’t be able to go to his debtors now and say, “Sorry, but I was in the middle of firing that manager and he had no right to change your debt so we need to adjust it back to what it was,” because he would lose tremendous ‘face’ in the community (same thing here in Tanzania). Once someone’s benevolence has been announced and celebrated, there’s no way you can go back on that. So the master realised that the manager had ripped him off and had left the master with no way to punish him more (he was technically still his manager at the time), and the manager had made some good friends for himself. It was very shrewd. But it wasn’t faithful, and the point that Jesus makes is about being faithful with someone else’s resources. So I can’t see how Jesus is saying, “Therefore be like the shrewd manager.” And why would you use money to make friends who would then welcome you into heaven? It doesn’t make sense to me…. is Jesus mocking the Pharisees or something?

Perhaps Jesus is saying to use your wealth to bless others and when it is gone (when you are dead) you will be welcomed in heaven. Basically focus on blessing on others rather than making a huge profit.